With a background in daily newspapers, I am an award-winning freelance journalist, specialising in travel and tourism. I am a regular contributor to a wide range of print and online newspaper travel sections, consumer and trade magazines, inflight magazines and websites. I’m also regularly creating new content for my blog, A Glass Half Full.
In 2016, I won the Best Travel & Tourism News Story category of the Australian Society of Travel Writers (ASTW) Awards for Excellence. I have also been a finalist for Best Australian Story under 1000 words (2021), Best Sustainable Tourism Story (2021), Best Use of Digital Media (2013 and 2014), Best Responsible Tourism Story (2012), Best Australian Story over 1000 words (2012), and Travel Book of the Year (2014) for A Glass Half Full and other travel stories, a collection of some of my work.
I am the author of the best selling Great Australian Pubs (Explore Australia, 2012), and have been the author or a contributing author for many other guides including Frommer’s Australia, Australia for Dummies, Rough Guide to Australia, Explore Australia, Frommer’s Easy Guide to Australia, Frommer’s Melbourne Free & Dirt Cheap, Frommer’s Melbourne Day by Day, and Frommer’s Portable Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
I am the co-editor and a contributor to two anthologies, Best Foot Forward: 30 Years of Australian Travel Writing (2006) and Red Dust & Wanderlust, Tales of Travel in Australia (2010). In 2012 I edited and co-ordinated the anthology Snapshots of Sri Lanka, to benefit a children’s charity in that country. I have also written and co-written several other books.
A creative and professional writer, I also provide images to accompany my words. I have been a contributing writer for a number of online Australian travel guides for the USA and UK markets, and I am a “destination expert”, feature writer and hotel reviewer for The Telegraph (UK). I have undertaken content writing projects for a range of companies including Google, Air New Zealand, Hilton Hotels, Tourism & Events Queensland and Spicers Retreats.
I regularly participate in lectures and courses on writing, freelancing and media. I have been a part-time university lecturer and tutor in journalism for the past 10 years and I hold a Doctor of Creative Industries degree from Queensland University of Technology. My thesis focused on ethics in travel journalism.